Digital music collections that reach a certain level in terms of size are hard to manage, especially with the tools offered by the Windows operating system. Many users resort to applications like Windows Media Player or iTunes to manage music on their computer system, but those tools cannot really be called lightweight and efficient when it comes to maintaining thousands, or even tens of thousands, of songs on the system.
The music management software MediaMonkey offers an alternative. The program is available as a free and premium version, with the free version alone being more than a worthy contender for every other music management software out there. MediaMonkey Gold on top of that adds even more tools and options to the program that make it worth for users to upgrade to it. But first things first, lets start with the review of MediaMonkey Gold.
MediaMonkey Gold Review
MediaMonkey offers to import music from connected storage devices on first startup. Users simply select the folders on their hard drive that contain their music and the program will do all of the importing. It will furthermore detect the presence of iTunes or Windows Media Player and offer to import ratings and other information from those applications as well. It is later possible to add other folders with music to the music library.
MediaMonkey supports a wide variety of media file types, from mp3 and aac to flac, mp4, ogg and wav, which means that the program should be able to recognize all music on a computer system with the exception of some very old or rare formats.
Music is automatically sorted into various categories to give the user options to locate it quickly. It is for instance to check out all songs in the library with options to sort them by parameters such as title, artist or album. But there are other groups available like composer, genre or year that offer additional access options to the collection. Even better, it adds classifications of its own that help the user in maintaining the music collection. Especially the Files of Edit listing is helpful, as it lists music tracks that have not been tagged properly yet. MediaMonkey lists for instance music with an unknown genre, album art, that is unleveled or has unsynchronized tags. Even better: The software offers tools to directly handle those inconsistencies or missing information. How is that done?
You simply right-click on a track to display a context menu with options to edit the information manually, or use information from the web or file name to tag the song properly.
The manual tag editing window offers everything that is needed to edit, add and delete tags from music, from standard tags like the track title, artist or genre, to additional details (like lyricist, involved people or the original artist), classifications or lyrics. Music lovers will love MediaMonkey for these options alone.
The auto tagging from web option tries to find the selected track on the Internet. If it does it displays relevant tags and album art which can all be imported into the tags of the song.
Music can not only be added from a local hard drive. MediaMonkey comes with options to rip audio CDs which are then automatically added to the music library. In addition, MediaMonkey users have options to burn selected music to CD again.
Other importing and exporting options are available. MediaMonkey can import music from mp3 players and compatible devices such as iPods or iPhones. Even better, it is also able to sync music with those devices, effectively eliminating the need to install iTunes on a system to sync music.
MediaMonkey comes with options to convert music into different formats. It uses encoders to do that and will preserve tag information in the process if supported by the new format.
The built-in file monitor monitors the hard drive for new music to add it to the library automatically. The music monitoring can be configured to be realtime, or only on startup of the application. The realtime monitoring ensures that music gets added to the library as soon as it is discovered by MediaMonkey’s monitoring module.
Playlists can be created with MediaMonkey easily. Available are manually created playlists and auto-playlists. Auto-playlists create a playlist based on criteria selected by the user. Several auto-playlists are already available, including creating a playlist that fits on an Audio or mp3 CD, tracks that have not been listened to recently or top 50 tracks. Available criteria for auto-playlists are all music tags and other data like a number of tracks, playtime or megabytes.
Another interesting MediaMonkey module is the podcast catcher which can be used to subscribe to podcasts. MediaMonkey includes access to two podcast directories from within its interface making it easy to subscribe to podcasts. Subscribed podcasts are automatically downloaded whenever they become available.
MediaMonkey is not only a music organizer but also a player. It offers all the features one would expect from a player including visualizations and more.
Reports can be generated that display information about the music collection, detailing number of artists, albums, tracks in the library as well as the total playtime and file size. In addition, the report displays averages, top 10 artists, albums or genres. Reports can be exported, as can track lists.
Here is a list of features that MediaMonkey offers in addition to the ones already mentioned:
- Multiple Music Collections – Create additional music collections, for instance to sort music using other criteria (e.g. kids music)
- Automatic music organization – organize music on hard drives into logical structures.
- Auto conversion and leveling – Converts music on the fly whenever it is needed, which is handy for instance to store music in a format on the computer (e.g. Flac) which is not supported by many hardware mp3 players.
- Virtual CDs to catalog a physical disk collection
- Sleep Timer
- Extensive customization
- Party mode
MediaMonkey Gold Verdict
MediaMonkey Gold offers everything that music lovers need from a software to manage their music collection. The free version alone is offering more options than most – if not all – music management applications. The Gold version tops that with unique features such as the automatic playlist generation module or the auto conversion and leveling option. MediaMonkey Gold is the tool for large music collections.
MediaMonkey Gold Giveaway
MediaMonkey gave use 25 licenses for MediaMonkey. The licenses are valid for version 3 and the upcoming version 4 of the software. Leave a comment letting us know about your favorite song of all time for a chance to win one of the licenses. Users who do not want to wait can download the free version of MediaMonkey directly from the developer website.
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Mine would be “Ceremony” by New order
My favorite song of all time is Yesterday from The Beatles.
Radiohead “Reckoner”
Favorite song: “Radiohead – Karma Police”
I would really like to win a licencse for MediaMonkey Gold, and my favourite song of all time must be “1979″ by “Smashing Pumpkins”
After reading the review, I wanna share my favorite song “I wanna be free,” sang by The Monkees, a band that comes to my mind by the program name.
Coincidentally, with MediaMonkey:
I wanna be free from the shackles of vendor software lockdown..
I wanna be free from mediocre software music players…
I wanna be free to choose which device to sync with…
Having used the program for quite a long time, after jumping from one music player to another, I can say that with MediaMonkey, “I’m a believer” (another The Monkees song, by the way).
Great review writing as always, and thank you for spreading word of this magnificent program.
/m
Martin Denny’s “Quiet Village”.My first stereo LP.
Reel Big Fish – Beer
This one is so usefull i’d really like to have a license,
It’s hard to choose only one song but i’ll go with Metallica – To Live is to die
“Do You Feel Like We Do” by Peter Frampton
Blondie “Call Me”.
Favorite song of all time is Iron Maiden “The Number of the Beast”.
My favorite songs of all time are Leonard Skinner’s Freebird and Kitaro’s Silver Moon. So you see I have a wide range of music interests! I’m using the free version of Media Monkey and love it! I would sure like to win the gold version!!
My favorite song would be Sittin’ on the dock of the bay by Otis Redding. This is a great piece of software that I would certainly enjoy.
Battery by Metallica
Great Software!
My favorite song all time is from Depeche Mode – “Never Let Me Down Again”!
Tough choice but I’ll have to go with: The Berzerker – Forever.
rush-subdivisions
My Favorite song is Stronger, Better, Faster by Daft Punk
Favorite Song “Send Me An Angel” by Scorpions. Please count me in.
What a great Gift for the holidays. Mediamonkey was the savior of my music collection, what a mess! But no more :)
One of my Fav’s is Rage against the Machines “Know your Enemy”
Hard to narrow things down though!
My Favorite song is “Crazy” sung by Patsy Cline, written by Willie Nelson.
I’m a rock and roller at heart but this country song is simply outstanding.
My alltime favorite is “Tonight” by Elton John
Van Morrison’s Moondance for the win.
John Lennon – Give Piece a Chance
Take me home by Phil Collins
Me me………Nice giveaway.
My favorite song is “The Real Slim Shady” by Eminem :)
Golden Earring’s “Radar Love”
The Man Who Sold The World – David Bowie
But I also like the Meat Puppets and Nivana versions.